It all started back in February 2018 when Tristan Scifo launched Purpose Advisory with a small collection of clients who moved with him from his previous employment, and with a supportive community of friends and mentors. Fuelled by his own desire to access both practical financial mentorship and life wisdom, Tristan dove headlong into creating a new solution which would integrate financial advice with transformational life coaching and empowering personal education.
“What would it look like for a business to be brilliant at what it does whilst valuing its clients, suppliers, staff and community as much as it does its shareholders?” This question had first caught flame in Tristan’s mind at age 17 and it peculated for over 10 years before it found its feet in the context of life-coaching-meets-financial-advice, eventually giving rise to the birth of Purpose Advisory. It’s our mission and passion to become a guiding light set on a hill, and for other businesses and individuals to be inspired by the example of helping people clients to live more fulfilled lives.
Refined By Fire
In early 2018, just months after the launch of Purpose Advisory, the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry was heating up, and renewed national attention was focused on the financial advice industry. Purpose Advisory was well positioned, after having already re-thought the way we deliver advice and after phasing out all new product-related commissions and all forms of referral fees. We had also redesigned our client engagement process to provide up to 10 hours of additional face-to-face education, coaching and support for clients even before any piece of financial advice was provided, ensuring our clients received informed consent and that our advice was unbiased and working in our clients best interest at all times.
However, our business hit headwinds when business who provided the financial advice license to our company, Dover Financial Planning, was shut down by the Australian regulator ASIC. This represented a threat to our ability to provide advice in the short term for our clients, and a potential stain to our business reputation. But Tristan was overwhelmed by the support and encouragement received from fellow advisers, clients and business associates alike. We found our a new business to provide us with our advice license, and more than just that, found a family-like community that came with it.
Purpose Advisory took many insights away from this experience, but none more potent than the realisation that we needed to one day own and manage our own financial advice license and become completely responsible for our own decisions. This would be a hefty responsibility to bare, but one which would better enable us to stand out as an example in our industry.
Read more about Purpose Advisory’s experience in choosing to be licensed with Dover and the aftermath of it's sudden collapse at the hands of ASIC’s determination.
Better Together
Within six months of launching Purpose Advisory as a solo operator, it became clear to Tristan that the vision he was pursuing was larger than what he alone could carry. Sharing this vision with other young financial advisers swiftly became a priority. He began to search for someone who operated at the same very high standard and with similar values who he could seek to partner with. Throughout this time of exploration, Tristan met and struck a friendship with Harry Goldberg, a talented and accomplished financial adviser who was well and truly on his own path of self-discovery and personal transformation.
Tristan and Harry took to jogging together on weekends whilst they wrestled with their ideas about the human heart and about finding love, truth and fulfilment in life. Harry had recently started a boutique financial advice business alongside a previous colleague of his, following their time as wealth advisers with high net worth clients in a large Australian bank. However it had become clear that their vision wasn’t aligned, and that instead, Harry’s vision for how he wished to assist his clients was exceptionally well aligned with that of Purpose Advisory. So after many long conversations, consultations with mentors, discussions with friends, and meals together working through details, Harry and Tristan agreed to partner together in their shared mission and make the most of being “better together”.
The Road Ahead
Purpose Advisory aims to help people to uncover their true identity and live in and live in line with their unique purpose so that they experience deep fulfilment in their lives. We do that through working one to one with our clients, through producing educational resources and through equipping and empowering others (both businesses and individuals) to champion the same vision as ours in their own context and with their own connections.
We look forward to finding new and more impactful ways to assist you in future.
Tristan Scifo (AR 458340), Harry Goldberg (AR 1240622) and Purpose Advisory Pty Ltd (CAR 1261695) are representatives of AVALONfs Pty Ltd (AFSL 437518).
